two step verification

Apple has rolled out two-step verification to the company's iMessage and FaceTime. That allows you to combine your password with a token to help protect your accounts from unauthorized access. That way, even if someone finds or figures out your password, they still won't be able to get into your account without the second step.

Earlier this year, Evernote introduced two-step authentication to its wildly popular note taking platform, and now it's available to all users. Initially the added security measure was only available to Evernote Premium and Business subscribers, but over the weekend it was rolled out to everyone else.

Twitter announced Wednesday that it is offering a form of two-step authentication for security-conscious users who want to make sure that their accounts are protected from unauthorized use. The new feature is described in a post made by Jim O'Leary of Twitter's product security team on the official Twitter blog.

Popular cloud storage solution, Dropbox has begun enabling two-step verification for their accounts, which means in addition to your password (something you know), they send an additional access code to your phone, or let you generate a time-based code with a mobile app like Google Authenticator (something you own). Although no security scheme is unbreakable, two-factor authentication is absolutely better than one. And if you keep personal data in Dropbox, you're absolutely going to want to use it.

The latest Dropbox beta adds support for two-step verification, and what's more -- Dropbox will be rolling out two-step verification to all accounts over the next few days. Similar to Google's two-step verification, in addition to your password (something you know), Dropbox will send an additional access code to you via text message to your phone, or allow you to generate something using an authenticator app, like Google Authenticator, on your iPhone or other mobile device (something you have).

After the news of Mat Honan's horrible experience of getting hacked, many of you are probably (and if not, should be!) taking extra precautions with your accounts, passwords, and general outlook on digital security. One of the big mistakes that Mat said he made was to not setting up Gmail's 2-step verification. Admittedly, this is a somewhat annoying security measure, but it's totally worth it.